I chose the title of Truth in Tension for this series of articles because truth can usually be found in the tension that exists between two opposing opinions. In case you’re not aware of it, the Church is filled with opposing opinions — and division.
Division is not new to the Church. Christianity has been scarred by division throughout its history. When we believe we are right and a fellow believer is wrong, the result is division. Friend, it’s OK to believe you are right, but if your pride drives you to prove another believer is wrong, then you’re doing damage to the Body of Christ. It’s better to remain silent and keep what you believe between you and God. Read Romans 14.
Division goes against the will of Jesus Christ for His Church. Listen to His prayer for us found in John 17:20-23, “My prayer is not for them alone. I also pray for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Every believer should memorize that passage and then make Christian unity a spiritual priority. Instead, our prideful desire to prove others wrong keeps us from living and serving together in victorious unity. Our division is a loss to us, to our community, to the mission of God, and to the heart of Jesus.
For the sake of unity, I invite you into the tension where truth abides and pride dies. Friends, truth is rarely contained in one exclusive position. God is just too big to be boxed in by our limited human understanding. Do you really believe that God has made you the official repository of all truth?
God tells us in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
I’m not big enough to contain all truth — and friend, neither are you. This is why unity is so important. If we’re going to gain a more complete understanding of God and His boundless grace and majesty, then we need each other.
Romans 11:33-35 declares, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay them? For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”
Having said all of that, I understand that I am a leader in a protestant church. Protestant comes from the word protest. The roots of my denomination can be traced back to Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation of 1517 AD. The Reformation divided Christianity into Catholic and Protestant. Like it or not, my denomination is the result of division.
But division goes back further than the Reformation. In 1054 AD, the Pope excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople and the entire Eastern Church over theological and political disagreements. In response, the Patriarch excommunicated the Pope and the entire Western Church. The result was the Great Schism of Christianity, resulting in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Today, those two churches account for nearly 1.3 billion divided Christians worldwide.
I only bring it up to help us Christians realize that there is division in ALL of our roots. We really can’t throw stones — and we really can’t do anything about how we got to where we are — but we can make a difference moving forward. Do you believe it? Are you willing to believe it?
Did you know that in 1964, the Pope and the Patriarch began healing the Great Schism of 1054? In 1965, after 911 years of division, the Pope and the Patriarch removed their mutual ex-communications and began the process of healing the great division between the Western and Eastern churches. Hallelujah and amen!
Do they now agree on everything? Certainly not. What’s changed is their willingness to lay down the need to prove the other wrong. That’s the key to unity.
Heather and I enjoy the friendship of two very special couples who have become family to us. Doug and Cathy are Catholic. Keith and Nancy are Lutheran. Tim and Heather are Wesleyan. More importantly, we are all Christian. Sure, we worship in different ways, and we emphasize different aspects of faith and practice, but in love, none of it matters. What matters is that we share in the boundless mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. We have all worshiped in each other’s churches, and we celebrate the uniqueness of each other’s faith. We live in precious unity because none of us feels the desire to prove the other wrong.
In the weeks ahead, I’m going to bring up topics that tend to be divisive in the Church. I’m doing it to purposefully create tension. We humans don’t like tension. We want everything to be resolved. But resolution won’t come through argument and division. Resolution only comes as we lay down our prideful desire to prove others wrong.
And who knows? Maybe the tension will teach us more about our amazing God. That’s my hope and prayer. I just want to know more about Him — and I just want to live in unity with you. I believe you want the same. Amen.
